^My parents phoned me on my mobile from Spain as soon as it was broadcast this morning (and my Dad is as tight as tight thing on National Tight Day - he doesn't phone mobiles in the same country never mind international)

Apparently it's all the talk of his (admittedly mostly ex-forces) retired Brit Community.

It combines a number of news stories from the last feww weeks and months about the allegedly poor treatment of reservists on demobilisation.

Without mentioning that there have been something like 15,000 reservists who've gone through the system, they present the difficulties experienced by one or two as common to all. Very professionally produced but still sensationalist journalism none the less. It won't help recruitment or retention so I've got my "All journos are bastards" shirt on again today.

The MOD really has no excuse for allowing anyone of these cases to happen.
Substandard medical treatment of soldiers, be they reg or TA, is unacceptable.
With the TAs current recruitment problems and with the government looking for us to volunteer for future operations, the MOD should be bending over backwards to insure that our major concerns such as our health care are taken care of.

My only surprise is that it's taken so long to come to the fore. We all know about people having cr*p treatment at Chilwell, on arrival in Theatre, when in Theatre and on the way home. The true grit, determination and more objective approach adopted by most TA soldiers sees them through it beause it's not all that the do, it's an adjunct and therefore not the end of the world if it's not perfect. BUT, and it's a big BUT, this is precisely the whole point about the current rebalancing situation. If you want the TA to bale you out, become more "professional" (whatever that atually means), be as fit, trained, and experienced as their regular counterparts (thus diluting if not removing the whole raison d'etre of the TA) then the Regulars CANNOT rely on the old "use and abuse" philosophy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are fools to ourselves. We should stop mobilising and helping them out when they are not prepared (it's the MOD really, not the Regulars per se) to give us even the basic comparable benefits. This Sky article is the tip of the iceberg - pay (not the same), pensions (don't exist), even uniforms and kit. Roll on more investigative journalism - the MOD might start to take some notice.

My only surprise is that it's taken so long to come to the fore. We all know about people having cr*p treatment at Chilwell, on arrival in Theatre, when in Theatre and on the way home. The true grit, determination and more objective approach adopted by most TA soldiers sees them through it beause it's not all that the do, it's an adjunct and therefore not the end of the world if it's not perfect. BUT, and it's a big BUT, this is precisely the whole point about the current rebalancing situation. If you want the TA to bale you out, become more "professional" (whatever that atually means), be as fit, trained, and experienced as their regular counterparts (thus diluting if not removing the whole raison d'etre of the TA) then the Regulars CANNOT rely on the old "use and abuse" philosophy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are fools to ourselves. We should stop mobilising and helping them out when they are not prepared (it's the MOD really, not the Regulars per se) to give us even the basic comparable benefits. This Sky article is the tip of the iceberg - pay (not the same), pensions (don't exist), even uniforms and kit. Roll on more investigative journalism - the MOD might start to take some notice.

My only surprise is that it's taken so long to come to the fore. We all know about people having cr*p treatment at Chilwell, on arrival in Theatre, when in Theatre and on the way home. The true grit, determination and more objective approach adopted by most TA soldiers sees them through it beause it's not all that the do, it's an adjunct and therefore not the end of the world if it's not perfect. BUT, and it's a big BUT, this is precisely the whole point about the current rebalancing situation. If you want the TA to bale you out, become more "professional" (whatever that atually means), be as fit, trained, and experienced as their regular counterparts (thus diluting if not removing the whole raison d'etre of the TA) then the Regulars CANNOT rely on the old "use and abuse" philosophy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we are fools to ourselves. We should stop mobilising and helping them out when they are not prepared (it's the MOD really, not the Regulars per se) to give us even the basic comparable benefits. This Sky article is the tip of the iceberg - pay (not the same), pensions (don't exist), even uniforms and kit. Roll on more investigative journalism - the MOD might start to take some notice.

I returned from Bosnia, company had reduced my pay grade "as you have been away you might not be as good at your job as you were" turned to MoD for help as this was illegal, comment "you will have to sort this out between you and your employer, it is not MoD policy to get involved in this sort of very low key discussion" crap I argued and in the end was given my old salary back but no fu***** back pay.

IMHO,
Having been on both sides of this argument, i've come to the conclusion that we may as well all bug*er off and let the 'REAL' Army play on it's own
THEN and only then will the MOD actually pay money to properly train the TA for deployment and this would also help with the regs biatching like they love to about the state of the TA augmentees that they get.
YOU PAYS FOR WHATS YOU GET!!